Offloading data compression during restores to a data processing unit in a deduplication backup system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024256166-A1
Application number	US-202318304099-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 20, 2023
Priority date	Jan 26, 2023
Publication date	Aug 1, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments for performing the inline deduplication by filtering streaming data as it is received by a backup client through a backup server executing a backup process. A data processing unit (DPU) is deployed to offload certain processing operations performed by a central processing unit (CPU) of the backup client. An inline deduplication operation comprises file operations, data segmentation, segment fingerprinting, compression, and encryption prior to storage in a backup target. The DPU is deployed and configured to perform the compression and encryption steps. It is also configured to perform decompression tasks offloaded by the client for reading compressed data during restore operations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method of optimizing client-side restores of backup data, comprising:
receiving, in a backup client, compressed backup data stored by a storage server; providing, in a central processing unit (CPU) of the backup client, a decompression process to decompress the compressed backup data; and deploying a data processing unit (DPU) functionally coupled to the CPU to perform at least some of the decompression process performed by the CPU.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the backup storage server generates the compressed backup data by:
executing a backup process performing the inline deduplication by filtering streaming data as it is received by the backup client;
performing, in the CPU, a segmentation process to determine where to break the streaming data into a plurality of segments; and
calculating, in the CPU, a reference for each segment of the plurality of segments.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein the DPU further performs at least some of the processing performed by the CPU including compressing, in the DPU, each segment, and encrypting each compressed segment.

4 . The method of claim 3 wherein the DPU comprises a hardware compression and encryption accelerator component, and a decompressor, and further wherein the CPU comprises data buffers, reference buffers, segment buffers executing a distributed segment processing send file loop for backup read and restore write operations.

5 . The method of claim 4 wherein the backup process is executed by a data storage server running a Data Domain File System (DDFS).

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the backup client utilizes a Data Domain (DD) Boost application program interface (API) to access a DD Boost library to perform at least the segmentation and the reference calculating steps.

7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the DD Boost library provides an option to use a compression feature that comprises at least part of the compressing.

8 . A computer-implemented method of optimizing client-side inline deduplication of backup data in a backup client, comprising:
performing the inline deduplication by filtering streaming data as it is received by the backup client for a backup process executed through a backup server; deploying a data processing unit (DPU) functionally coupled to the CPU to perform at least some of the inline deduplication performed by the CPU; compressing, during a restore process from the backup server to the backup client, data read by the client after decompression; and performing, in the DPU, at least some of the decompression.

9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the DPU comprises data buffers, reference buffers, segment buffers executing a distributed segment processing send and read file loop and further comprises a hardware compression accelerator component, and a decompression component.

10 . The method of claim 8 wherein the backup process is executed by a data storage server running a Data Domain File System (DDFS).

11 . The method of claim 10 wherein the CPU comprises a DD protocol layer managing client resources and translating backend processing into application consumable application program interfaces (APIs).

12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the DPU utilizes a Data Domain (DD) Boost application program interface (API) to access a DD Boost library to perform certain deduplication, compression acceleration, and decompression functions.

13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the DD Boost library provides an option to use a compression feature that comprises at least part of the compressing.

14 . A computer-implemented method of optimizing client-side inline deduplication of backup data and decompression of restored data, comprising:
deploying a Data Domain (DD) Boost file system (FS) interface (API) to access a DD Boost library on a backup client hosting one or more applications generating the backup data backed up using a deduplication process; deploying a data processing unit (DPU) functionally coupled to the CPU to perform at least some of the deduplication process through the DD Boost API; receiving, in the backup server, a request to restore the backup data to the backup client; compressing the backup data prior to transmission to the backup client; and decompressing the transmitted backup data restored to the backup client, wherein at least part of the decompressing is offloaded by the backup client to the DPU.

15 . The method of claim 14 wherein the DPU comprises data buffers, reference buffers, segment buffers executing a distributed segment processing send and read file loop and further comprises a hardware compression accelerator component, and a decompression component.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the backup process is executed by a data storage server running a Data Domain File System (DDFS).

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the CPU comprises a DD protocol layer managing client resources and translating backend processing into application consumable application program interfaces (APIs).

18 . The method of claim 17 wherein the DPU utilizes a Data Domain (DD) Boost application program interface (API) to access a DD Boost library to perform certain deduplication, compression acceleration, and decompression functions.

19 . The method of claim 18 wherein the DD Boost library provides an option to use a compression feature that comprises at least part of the compressing.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Bhanjois Bhimsen
• Lewis Donna Barry
• Vinod Chegu

Classifications

• G06F11/1469

  Backup restoration techniques · CPC title

• G06F11/1453

  using de-duplication of the data · CPC title

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F3/0641 Primary

  De-duplication techniques · CPC title

• G06F3/0626

  Reducing size or complexity of storage systems · CPC title